Chapter 8: If you don’t want people to know (1/2)

The scene in front of him flashed before his eyes, Bai Yan was free from the game and finally returned to the real world.

Discovering that he was back to where he was before, the first thing that Bai Yan did was to inspect the room’s wall clock. He was inside the game for half an hour. However, only a minute had passed in the real world.

‘So 30 minutes inside the game was equivalent to a minute in the real world, or no matter how much time passed by in the game, it will always be one minute in the real world?’

This thought flashed through Bai Yan’s mind. But before he could continue pondering about it, a sudden burst of vertigo suddenly struck him out of nowhere.

Since noon, he hadn’t eaten or drank anything due to him being, at that time, extremely agitated. He had momentarily forgotten about this matter, so after a while, he was finally able to relax. The fatigue caused by the game and hunger from starving for a day, came in thick and fast, surging in his body to express protest.

“I can’t even call for take out in this kind of circumstances. Forget it, I’ll just eat whatever I have.”

Bai Yan stared at the blood-stained floor. Because of his dripping clothes, the floor was colored by bloody water and had even spread through the surrounding area.

Additionally, because his balance earlier was unstable, resulting in him propping his hand against the wall to support himself, a clear bloody handprint was left on the wall. If people were to see it, it may be impossible to fool them with the excuse that it was just art.

After being soaked thoroughly in blood, he didn’t know if he could still use it…

The diary needed some time to be completely dried. Although Bai Yan slept for a long time at noon, he was still feeling groggy. And so, he turned off the lights, closed his eyes, and drifted off into dreamland.

……

At 5 AM, Bai Yan’s body clock naturally woke him up.

After consuming his oatmeal for breakfast, Bai Yan opened his cellphone and clicked on the black and red app.

Unlike the first time he pressed on it, this time, when he clicked on the app, he was not transported into the game.

The app showed round checkpoints with the numbers from 1 through 12 on them.

Among them, the ‘1’ icon was illuminated, indicating that he had already cleared that level of the game. The following numbers from 3 to 12 were not unlocked yet, but the 2nd level had a countdown to it. Bai Yan looked at the timer. The time showed that there were six days left, which was the next Monday.

In addition to the 12 level icons, on the upper right side of the app, there was an interesting icon. Bai Yan clicked it open and discovered that this was a forum. Inside the forum were full of posts regarding the game ‘Frontline of Hell.’

[A noobs’ must-read! The forum’s most comprehensive game tutorial!]

[Five veterans discuss their experiences on surviving the game. Enter to take a look.]

[Noob Requesting for Help: I’ve just survived the newcomer level, the first level’s easy mode was already so hard. Wouldn’t the second level’s ordinary mode be more chilling? Seeking an expert’s guidance!]

[OP Seventh Level God! Looking for reliable teammates! Players who don’t suck can enter!! Looking for a team! Looking for a team! Looking for a team!]

…

There were all kinds of weird threads on the forum, but most of them discussed information about the game. Bai Yan followed his interest and spent the whole morning browsing through the forum. The forum provided lots of information regarding the nature of the game and also summarized some important information.——

1. According to the forum’s earliest post, ‘Frontline of Hell’ was a game that first appeared a year ago.

2. The game has a total of 12 levels. The first level was in easy mode. The second to the sixth level was an ordinary mode. From seven to nine, the difficulty was raised to hard. And finally, from level 10 to 12, the levels were on hell mode.

According to a popular theory of an old gamer, once the game was successfully cleared, there would be a grand prize waiting for the player. The prize was to fulfill a wish that the player had. However, currently, only a few gamers have reached the 10th level, which was currently the highest level entered. After they have entered the 11th level, there wasn’t any news on these players in the forums, reckoning that they must’ve died inside the game.

3. ‘Frontline of Hell’s’ purpose was still unclear. Many talked about conspiracy theories in the forum, but they still lacked trustworthy evidence. However, there was only one thing that the veteran gamers agreed upon, which was that ‘Frontline of Hell’ didn’t force its players to die. Each level in the game had a corresponding life path and death path. Avoiding the death path would be a really big help in clearing the game.

4. You must properly protect your phone. All levels of the game require the use of the app’s ‘return’ button to finish the game. But players don’t need to worry about their phone’s safety. No matter if your phone was a counterfeit or was a slot machine, just as long as the app is downloaded, your phone will be water-resistant, fire-resistant, and shock-resistant.

5. Every seven days, players need to advance to the next level. The total number of days to reach level 12 is 78 days, which was around three months. From the time the first post on the forum was up, the game had already progressed through four cycles.

6. The game levels have the same corresponding rules and regulations.

a. According to the priority rule, gamers who are playing the same difficulty will be prioritized to be matched together. For example, ordinary level to ordinary level and difficult to difficult level.

b. Players who start the game at the same time will also be matched together.